Tell your story

March 24, 2011

So in the last post we discussed breaking the routine in your services. So now you’ve put that in practice, even as far as changing up how your offering time goes. Great! So what’s the next step?

How about we stick with the exercise analogy? Say I’ve never worked out before and I wander into a gym and walk around and test out some of the machines. I keep doing this week after week and for some reason I don’t see any changes in my body. Just as I’m ready to quit, someone else that works out there asks me if I need some help and proceeds to tell me how they workout. The walk on the treadmill, or ride a bike, and then lift weights in a certain sequence with a specific weight etc…Now I have a plan!

In our churches, including mine, we aren’t telling our stories of giving often enough. If you’re encouraging your members to go on a mission trip, often we’ll see another member tell about their experience serving. Want to get people to join the music ministry, have a choir member express how God has changed his/her life through serving there. So if we want to encourage giving, the obvious answer is to have our members tell their giving stories.

Maybe a couple tells how God was faithful when they kept giving even though the husband lost his job. Someone learned how to budget and made giving a priority because of the Financial Peace class at church. Another person was able to be consistent in giving because they learned how they could give online each week.

We use stories all the time in church and outside of church to teach and motivate. Maybe its time you used giving stories in your church to do the same thing.